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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2019 21:47:55 GMT
You have good taste sir...
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Post by simplyloco on Feb 26, 2019 22:50:09 GMT
Oh and yes, in case you hadn't guessed, I love this car, I have driven some very fast cars, none can match this package, not even today, especially as it now has twice it's original power... Pete I have to say that I preferred my 1989 944 S2 (black with ivory leather, bought in 1991 and sold soon after to help with the divorce bill...) to my 2006 911 Carrera S convertible which was smaller, less comfortable, didn't handle so well, noisier, very juicy and nobody would let me out of junctions... My E350 Merc is a much better proposition! John
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stevep
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,070
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Post by stevep on Feb 27, 2019 17:37:38 GMT
Were you a member of the 944 forum? I organised the timing belt seminar in Basingstoke for that group.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2019 19:07:20 GMT
Were you a member of the 944 forum? I organised the timing belt seminar in Basingstoke for that group. Wow, small world Steve, IIRC the timing belt seminar that I attended may have been in Basingstoke, certainly in that part of the country. Instructor was Jon Mitchel of JMG Porsche, this must have been around 18 years ago now? Pete
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stevep
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,070
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Post by stevep on Feb 28, 2019 11:48:00 GMT
Yes - that's the one. Here's the picture of all our cars. As the only red one is at the far end, that must have been yours. Mine is the white one, second in. Sadly, no longer with us.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2019 12:29:44 GMT
Wow... that was a fun day, if I recall held at a tech college or school?.. yep that red one is definitely mine, you can read the plate if looking close enough, only 6 digits in my number... So we have both ME and good taste in cars in common Steve.. Pete
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stevep
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,070
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Post by stevep on Feb 28, 2019 13:28:17 GMT
Basingstoke College of Technology
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2019 13:38:20 GMT
Basingstoke College of Technology aha, it's funny how I can remember some things but not others..lol... those were fun days, IIRC this would have been organised on the 'Titanic' forum, I was much more active with my 944 when Titanic was still running, fond memories indeed...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2019 15:04:01 GMT
Hi guys Not much done this week as I've been out enjoying the car in the good weather of late but I have finally got her on all wheels again and getting ready for the jobs planned for next week. Once the chassis was the right way up I took this picture of the brake shaft and cylinders, looks very much like the prototype to me. Of course, today, I believe her to have a different set up with either Steam or air brakes (I'm sure someone will tell me which) which would mean different cylinders and mounting apparatus. here we have her on her feet so to speak, the rods are now refitted for perhaps the last time? in loo of this, the front crank pin bolts have been done up fully with some thread sealant applied (low strength). The trailing crank pin taper pins have been cut to length and all parts given a light coat of oil before assembly. You may have an idea of what my next job may be as there's a large part missing from between the frames.. And here's the job for next week, the centre cylinder. Monday I'll spend some time making a new between the centre's tool to bore the steam chest and get it set correctly onto the lathe cross slide. You may recall that I have already made the jig for holding the cylinder for machining both its flat surface and that of the inclined 1 in 8 or just over 7 degrees. The picture shows the cylinder sitting on the 1 in 8 wedge, I will bolt this back onto the cross slide (position is already fixed by the mounting bolts) and add a spacer to bring the steam chest up to it's correct height, this looks to be approx 1/4 inch, that's me just eyeballing it, I'll work it out properly on Monday. I will probably do most of the jobs involved with this cylinder before moving on again. I currently have no suitable gauge plate so won't be able to do the slide bars just yet, there's plenty of other things to keep me busy though. More soon... Pete
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,909
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Post by JonL on Mar 1, 2019 15:59:40 GMT
I thought the Brit was complicated enough with two cylinders... best of luck!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2019 16:53:09 GMT
I thought the Brit was complicated enough with two cylinders... best of luck! There's not too much left to do on this cylinder Nobby, well not in as far as machining to the casting. The steamchest should be a lot more straight forward than the blind bore Mind you I still have the blind bores to do to the two outside cylinders...lol Pete
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Post by Rex Hanman on Mar 4, 2019 10:13:12 GMT
Yes - that's the one. Here's the picture of all our cars. As the only red one is at the far end, that must have been yours. Mine is the white one, second in. Sadly, no longer with us. Strewth! At least a dozen empty parking spaces and not one of you managed to park between the lines! You must be the same people who use our local supermarket! In cash terms, what would that little lot be worth today? Steve, I think I can remember yours. You say it is now "sadly no longer with us". What happened to it?
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stevep
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,070
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Post by stevep on Mar 4, 2019 15:58:19 GMT
Sold it.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2019 20:46:35 GMT
Ah value?...not sure Rex as I can't identify all of the models from this distance. Being enthusiast cars they will be at least good condition, some excellent. Using Hagerty's valuation tool at just 'good' values we've probably talking 120k plus...perhaps much more. I can't remember how many turbo's were there, from this angle a S2 looks the same.
Pete
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2019 22:54:10 GMT
back with the middle cylinder then, I took my time setting this up on the lathe's cross slide. After bolting the angled wedge back to the cross slide and checking it was square I set the height using two centres as a guide. The picture shows the cylinder bolted to the 1 in 8 wedge once happy with it's position. using some suitable packing I now had the height and the cylinder running parallel longitudinally. I also added a large 'G' clamp to hold the cylinder to the wedge stops that's not shown here. This left the distance between the two bores to sort out, I have mentioned before that this particular casting isn't the best, but serviceable. Things were now beginning to show that confirmed my earlier suspicion that something may have moved during the casting being made. The steamchest bore core, for example, isn't central to the outer ring, it's a little too far to the left of the casting as fitted to the frames. Not a big deal as I can machine it where it's supposed to be as there's plenty of metal but it could catch someone out. I can't recall the measurements sitting here at the PC, but after noting the distance required between the main bore and the steamchest centre's I needed to move the hole approx 1mm away from the camera. I was working in mm and the distance required away from the left-hand side to the center of the steamchest is IIRC 15.08mm. Before doing this I did a roughing cut at the bore's center as cast, this was to get rid of all the rough lumps that had been left in the steam passageway slots which I couldn't reach with a Dremel cutter. Having done that the bore was easier to see what I had and thus I could adjust the centre line and begin boring the steamchest properly. Regarding the boring bars used, I began with the 1/2" bar which was also used for the main bore. I made a bigger dia boring bar from 15mm to take over once the smaller tool had opened the steam chest enough. The final job was to use an adjustable reamer, more on that later. The picture shows how I measured the 15.08mm, BTW, Don states that this measurement is very difficult to measure accurately and isn't critical anyway, so I wasn't too concerned about this 'Heath Robinson' approach that I have used.. A rear view after the first few passes have been made. This picture shows the guides at the rear and side to register the casting, you can also see the 'g' clamp which is close to the chuck. At this stage, I removed the boring bar and double checked the centre distance between steamchest and piston gland at the rear which looked good, I was now happy to continue boring to the required size of 7/8th. The next two pictures were taken before moving up to the larger boring bar, this one at the front shows the various steam passages that are part of the cast beginning to be cleaned up. And this from the rear and here is where I had clear evidence that something had moved during pouring or the pattern was damaged. The outside, which is also clearly seen here I already knew and had pointed out that it looked odd, hopefully, you can see what I mean? But now look in the bore at the rear steam passageway, that vertical length of flash shouldn't be there, it should be clean like the front. It's not a problem as long as I can remove it as it may hinder the steam flow, or at least make it unmatched to the front flow. Here the bore has been machined to 5 thou undersize ready for reaming and you can see that I have removed most of the offending flash, to do this I sharpened a small tool chisel that could reach that far into the bore and tapped it out using a small hammer. The remaining piece of flash I will have to do with the Dremel, I'll need to make up something with a long enough shaft for this. I have checked that the openings into the main bore are clear of which they are, so all's good there. The last picture for tonight shows the first pass with the reamer, first, as I did this one cranking the chuck by hand, I'll do another tomorrow under power. Some may ask why use a reamer if they have been bored? well the boring bars are very long, there will be some deflection over such a long length, also I have 3 of these to do and by using the reamer which is set, I can get all 3 the same and not have to play around when making the 6 valve liners which need to be a very accurate fit, well at least that's my thought process... next job after I'm happy with the bore will be to face the two ends, it will be nice to finally clean up that mess..lol, I'll make up a 'knife edge tool' that uses the boring bar for this job. This I believe will leave one more job at this set up, that being, boring the recess for the valve liners to fit. I need to look at this carefully, not knowing the full state of what's going on with the casting exterior, ie, just where the facing ends/starts. This should keep me busy for a couple of days... Cheers Pete
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2019 23:46:27 GMT
evening chaps... I wasn't going to do the next update until I had finished the basic machining of the middle cylinder but after taking 10 photos covering today's efforts in the workshop, i decided otherwise as these writeups take a lot of time, especially as they are adapted to post on each of the 3 formats. For those that don't know, there's a good reason why I log all of this in detail. One day I hope to publish a book on this build, all of these updates are basically 'bullet's to remind me of each topic which hopefully my memory will get a jolt to help me write a much more detailed description of the build, well that's the plan. So back to today's efforts, I did as stated and ran the 7/8 reamer through the bore again but this time under power, I'll show a close up at the end. The first picture is the setup for machining the front face, I first made a 'knife-edge' tool from 8mm tool steel, cross drilled the larger of the two boring bars 9towards one end) and cross drilled that for a 6BA grub screw. The picture shows the first cut made across the face, I did as mentioned first study the drawings some more to get an idea of how much material needed to be removed from this 'spigot', the answer surprisingly to that was nearly all of it? This will become clearer later. I best add this picture of the knife edge tool, I basically machined away half of the 8mm tool steel bar over a length that covered the area that needed to be machined. I then gave the trailing side a 'rake' and the final job (not seen here) was to sharpen the leading edge with an 'oil stone'. Oh, I also machined a flat on the edge to be held in the bar. I then hand machined most of the excess material leaving approx 1mm to go, you can see how much has been taken off in the photo. I stopped 1mm short as I needed to ensure that both ends had the same amount of depth to the steam passages either side. The actual length face to face is 3 29/32 or IIRC 99.21mm, this is more or less the distance between the exhaust outer castings at either end, so I knew that leaving the face a little over would be safe to measure more accurately once both ends had had most of the material removed as I would then have two machined ends to measure too. And on to the rear face, I have shown this picture to point something out that became clearer as I got further into the machining. This is going back to the poor quality of this particular casting, I hope there aren't any others out there? Note the overhang above the steam chest bore, I have been puzzled by this since the beginning but not knowing this casting I just assumed it was a 3 or even 4 part mould. Having now machined more of the excess away and getting close to the final size/shape I think that the top half of the mould/pattern not only moved out of step but twisted a little and the top lifted, the overhang being how much it lifted by? this will show better in some of the other pictures for tonight. sorry for the poor quality of this picture, what it shows is I have machined the rear face down also to approx 1mm oversize like the front and then using a piece of steel with a right angle at one end, inserted the angled end into the steam passage and marked where it came out of the bore. I then removed the marker, placed it in the front end and was very happy to see that both ends were more or less of the same length, same by eye at least. Now that I was happy that things were pretty central I measured the overall length to see how much further I needed to go, as can be seen, I have just over 2mm in total to remove. I did this but kept checking along the way that things still looked central before finishing at the 3 29/32 length required. Now, a couple of pictures to try and show what I mean by the pattern had moved or was damaged, take your pick. This is of the rear face, if you look at the right-hand side of the steam chest you'll notice the step. This is about 2mm and it continues around the top to the flange edge, this is why I say it has lifted and why it is stepped as seen by the 2mm step. BTW the casting sides also had a bad step on one side and the other had been ground down. When I began doing the steamchest bore it was a tense affair due to how misshaped the casting is, at first I asked myself, 'had I got it wrong? was the bore going at an angle as I could see that the face ring was smaller at the bottom than the top? I decided (rightly as it turned out), to ignore it, have faith in the setup and carry on, I could see on double checking everything that nothing had moved. Only when I had nearly finished the faces could I finally see what was going on and that I was right to ignore my concerns, my paranoia for want of a better word. Now we move to the front where we also have a step but this is on the bottom and not the top like the rear, this is why I say the top had twisted (remember the core was out too). There's not much left to see here as most of it was machined away when facing the main bore (which made things a little more problematic) but it is, in fact, a larger step than the rear, I can't see much sign of anything lifting here though, perhaps a little? BTW, in photo's in Don's 'words and music' the castings have no sign of any such steps so they aren't supposed to be there. Last picture to show the finish on the bore after the second pass with the reamer. Tomorrow if all goes to plan I'll finish the last machining job on this cylinder, that being the recess either end for the valve liners to fit into, I'll make all six liners together once the outside cylinders have been machined, they should be a walk in the park after this thing, it will then be on to the various covers. Today I ordered some 8BA lengths of stainless threaded rod, some nickel plated steel 8BA nuts and some 8BA washers, hopefully enough to complete the fitting of covers for the middle cylinder. It seems that by some luck and yes there has been some luck involved here, I have managed to get a serviceable cylinder out of a very bad casting. The outside castings look like the crown jewels in comparison... Pete
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2019 13:58:17 GMT
I'm posting this early as it gives me time to get my brain in gear, I think that I have finished all of the machining exercises for this setup but want to give it a little time before I de-rig, so if anyone can think of something that i've forgotten, you have about an hour to speak up... Well, today has been one of those frustrating days, I had two simple boring jobs to do and the gods were against me. I reset the boring bar for a little deeper cut, lined it up to the edge of the front face, zero'd 'x' and began to cut and guess what, my 'X' scale decided this was the best time to play up....lol Not to be beaten, I marked on the bar from the cutting tip a distance of 0.468 or 15/32, run the chuck to mark a constant line around the bar and then taped that to give me a depth to cut too. The first picture shows what I'm trying to describe. My procedure was to cut this with the tip at 3 settings, alternating between front and rear and stopping just short of the depth mark. I then did the final cut to give me a bore of 0.937 at it's full depth of 0.468 and was very happy with the result, well, nearly. Here's the front, you can see the steam passage which is basically an internal recess so that the steam can get in all around the valve liner and you can just see part of the opening for the front exhaust passage. The step between the two is very important as it's what the valve liner buts up against and why the depth of 0.468 needs to be fairly accurate. and then we have the rear and the casting throws one more curve ball at me, yes you are seeing right, a great big blow hole??? Now, this isn't really a problem for where it is, it doesn't go right through and it's not in a critical position. So, I repeat again what I said yesterday, I have been very lucky in getting something out of the bad casting. If this hole had been deeper and broke through into the main bore life would have become very problematic with possible sleave fitting involved.....grrr Once I have removed the cylinder from it's setup I will be able to take care of all tidying up jobs, such as filling off these steps that shouldn't be there, i will of course have to be careful with the rear step due to the unwanted blowhole. I can then look at the valve cover for the main bore and the rear cover for the steam chest, the front cover is quite involved and I don't have the material to hand so will have to wait a while. More soon chaps Pete
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,909
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Post by JonL on Mar 6, 2019 20:58:29 GMT
Such a complex casting, I don't think my nerves can stand it!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2019 21:25:50 GMT
Such a complex casting, I don't think my nerves can stand it! My nerves were strained at times I can tell you, at £500 for the casting and now being retired I'd find it very diificult to find the money to replace it...I try to not think about such things....
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,909
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Post by JonL on Mar 7, 2019 11:14:53 GMT
The Brit castings seem quite reasonable (less complex I guess) as I found out last night when I checked how much my guide bar brackets would be to replace if I screw up...
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